EDITOE'S TABLE. 



The Preservation of Grapes in Winter. — I have long been in the habit of saving Grapes for 

 winter use between bats of cotton. I have always found a tendency to mold, from, as I suppose, 

 the too close texture of the cotton bats. Last autumn I gathered my principal crop of Grapes 

 {Isabella and Catawba) on the 7th of October — about 200 lbs. lu the pressure of other business, 

 they were left spread thinly on sheets, in a dry room, until the 2d of November. This was a 

 fault, as I was aware at the time, since they not only shrivelled badly, but mildew began on the 

 stems. They were then packed — one half in cotton, as usual, and the remainder in dry Maple 

 leaves, in alternate layers of each, as in the case of the cotton. 



And now for the result. Those put down in the Maple leaves kept much better than the 

 others. The advantage of the Maple leaves over the cotton is, they pack less closely, and so do 

 not exclude air ; they do not stick to the decayed berries and the sharp portioas of the stems ; 

 and they have, in case of any incipient decay, less power to communicate a bad flavor. Indeed, 

 Maple leaves, gathered soon after they have fallen, are perfectly clean, and without scent I 

 should have said, before this, that these Grapes are yet good, and are now in use. 



Theoretically, I have long thought, and do still think, that packing in clean sand would be 

 preferable to any other mode. Sand washed from the vegetable matter that is often mixed with 

 it, is as clean as the new fallen snow, and j^erfectly insoluble in any common vegetable acid. It 

 can not, therefore, impart the least ilavor to fruit buried in it. It has the further advantage of 

 most closely enveloping fruit, especially the berries of Grapes, so that they are separated from 

 each other ; at the same time, its dryness will absorb the moisture that may be imparted by a 

 decaying berry. Sand can be readily washed, and dried in the heat of summer; and the same 

 mass could be used from year to year, by being annually washed. C. E. Goodrich. — Utica, K.Y. 



My own Experience in Transplanting. — It is truly gratifying to find, in the last number of the 

 Hoi-ticulturist, so correct a view, and such valuable suggestions presented by the editor, in regard 

 to the transplanting of fruit trees. We discover of late an increasing inquiry in relation to this 

 matter ; yet I apprehend that much information is still wanting to convince the public mind that 

 a consistent and judicious course of treatment — a course best calculated to preserve a uniform 

 growth of newly planted trees, and to promote their prosperity and vigor through life, — although 

 it may be attended with some extra trouble and expense, will in the end prove most beneficial 

 and satisfactory. The views marked out by the editor are much in accordance with my own. I 

 wish, however, that he had been a little more definite and explicit in regard to deep planting, the 

 construction of the borders, and the component materials to be placed about the roots. Deep 

 planting I conceive to be one of the most fatal errors in forming new plantations ; and the most 

 difiicult to correct, as the people generally do not =eem aware of its injurious effects. 



It is not my intention to criticise upon what has been said, and well said, by an experienced 

 Editor, but simply to point out my own experience, and the course I have adopted and practiced 

 of late years, in relation to the transplanting of fruit trees ; and this I will confine to a small 

 orchard of Apple trees, 85 in number, set in the fall of 1851, which was an unusually dry season, 

 thus rendering transplanting more difiicult The winter previous, I drew four cart loads of peat 

 earth thrown up from a muck swamp a year previous. This I placed upon the ground prepared 

 for the orchard, and added the same quantity of fine yard manure, mixing the eight loads together 

 for decomposition. Directly after harvest I laid out my ground in diamonds, thirty-five feet apart 

 in the rows. My soil is rather a sandy loam, with gravelly sul.)soil. I then turned up a deep cut 

 back-furrow one way of the rows about six feet wide, as I intended cultivating the ground the 

 cnminw season. Quite early in the fall I prepared the border for the reception of the trees. The 

 holes were dug four feet wide and two feet deep, carefully placing the surface soil by itself and 

 the subsoil in a separate heap. About the 17 th of October I commenced setting the treea 

 holes were about half filled with the partially rotted sods from the back-furrow nicely 



